


Raw? No.

by gremlins-came-and-got-me (Scared_Beings_in_the_Dark)



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Birthday Gift Fic, Gen, Scott is a Bad Alpha, Season 4/5 fix it, crossposting, full shift derek, what if
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-25 23:55:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13845708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scared_Beings_in_the_Dark/pseuds/gremlins-came-and-got-me
Summary: After the events atLa Iglesia, Derek feels like he needs to leave town. He thinks no one will miss him.





	Raw? No.

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally posted at [my Tumblr](http://1989dreamer.tumblr.com/post/168383826640/raw-no) as a birthday gift to [imyoursourwolf](https://imyoursourwolf.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Any tags I forgot? Let me know. Thanks!
> 
> The title comes from Stiles and Scott's discussion of eating rabbits in Season 1.

* * *

Everything is bright.

Derek stumbles as he trots out into the light. He’s been sleeping for too long, he thinks. He shakes his head, sniffs the air, and sneezes.

Standing upwind from his den, and probably the reason Derek is no longer snuggled deep in his burrow, Stiles whistles again.

“Here, boy,” he calls, winking at Derek.

Derek growls at him and turns around to head back into his den. Stiles can go away. He won’t get Derek to come home just yet.

It’s more comfortable living as a wolf now. He feels more in touch with his family’s land. It has nothing to do with the fact that things have gone sideways since the battle in Mexico with Kate and her berserkers. Scott is posturing , trying to reaffirm his status as an alpha after very nearly being an undead pawn for eternity. That means shunning all reminders of bad things in his life, one of which is Derek. At least, that’s the excuse Scott gave Derek when he came to turn him out of his loft and run him out of town.

Derek isn’t hiding out here in the preserve, but he certainly isn’t going to make it easier for anyone to find him. In fact, he isn’t sure how Stiles, human Stiles, found him.

“Oh, come on,” Stiles grumbles, crawling up the steep hill on hands and feet, clutching at roots and sending bits of grass and leaves tumbling down. Derek sighs, letting his head droop.

He should have known that Stiles wouldn’t let him go.

Stiles is the only one still looking after him.

Derek sighs again and turns around, padding down to where Stiles is trying to climb the hill. He nudges him with his snout, poking and huffing and sneaking a lick or three in while Stiles fights his way upright.

“Fine!” Stiles shouts suddenly. “I give up!” He sits on his butt and starts sliding down the hill. Derek watches him, head cocked. It looks like fun, honestly.

He whuffs softly, plopping onto his hindquarters and shoving off with his paws.

Stiles stands up at the bottom of the incline, dusting himself off when Derek barrels into him and sends him sprawling.

Derek licks Stiles’ face and jumps away quickly before he can retaliate.

Surprisingly, worryingly, Stiles remains still for a few minutes. Derek nuzzles him, sniffing and inhaling as deep as he can. Stiles smells a little hurt, scrapes and bumps. Nothing major. So why isn’t he moving?

Derek sits down with a thump next to Stiles’ head and lies down so he can stare at him. Stiles opens one eye and sighs at him.

“Are you done?”

Derek shrugs as best he can with canine shoulders.

Stiles sits up, picking at his palm, which, Derek can see, is abraded enough that it looks sore. Derek shuffles closer, leaning his nose against Stiles’ wrist, pulling the pain easily and quickly. Stiles still yelps and jerks away.

“Asshole,” he says fondly, inspecting his palm. “Are you done hiding away and moping like the overgrown puppy you resemble?”

Derek huffs, looks away. Scott doesn’t want him in Beacon Hills. And since Scott is the alpha, Derek will have to leave.

He thought they’d been getting on, but apparently being kidnapped by Kate Argent was somehow Derek’s fault, and now they were back where they started and Scott hated him again.

He tries to convey this to Stiles with his eyes and his ears, but Stiles lacks the capability of understanding his facial expressions and just taps at Derek’s brow with an amused smirk on his face.

“You totally still have your eyebrows,” he says. “Right now, they’re trying to tell me something. But, dude, all I’m hearing is the glaring silence. If you want me to understand, you’ll have to turn back into a human.”

Derek glances around. He doesn’t know where he left his clothes. It’s been a few weeks at least. They won’t smell like him now so he can’t go searching for them. He doesn’t really want to shift back where anyone will be able to see his junk and ogle him. He doesn’t think Stiles would do it since he seemed respectful of Derek’s personal bubble after the Danny-incident.

It’s worth the risk, he decides, if only to talk to Stiles with his vocal chords again.

He doesn’t count on two things. One, Stiles is completely flabbergasted when he shifts back to his human form, stuttering, blinking, and looking everywhere but at Derek. And two, Derek hasn’t spoken in at least three weeks. His vocal chords don’t want to cooperate so his “Hello” ends up being indecipherable.

Stiles seems to find his voice at the same time that Derek does, and they both start to say something over each other.

Stiles pauses. Derek pauses too.

Stiles smiles shyly. “You first,” he offers.

“I need to leave town,” Derek says, and tries not to feel elation at the way Stiles’ face falls.

“Oh,” he says. “I was just going to say that it’s good to see you. Not that I haven’t been seeing you in your wolf-form, but it’s nice to actually see your face and talk to you.”

“How did you find me?” Derek asks. Stiles flushes, tugging at the collar of his shirt.

“Uh, yeah, about that.” He coughs. “I had my dad keep an eye on the preserve. You know, just in case we ever had an actual mountain lion to worry about. He mentioned that he’d seen a black wolf hanging around this hill, and I put it together that it was you.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why did you come looking for me?”

Stiles stares at the ground, picking at his hand again. Derek reaches out and grips his wrist to draw his pain again. Stiles flinches at his touch, and Derek pulls back.

“I missed you,” Stiles mumbles. “One day you were laughing and hanging out with us, and the next you took off into the woods never to be seen again.”

“You missed me?” Derek is incredulous. No one missed him. He could fall off the face of the earth and no one would be any wiser. Except Stiles, a tiny voice pipes up. Who came back for him in the pool with the kanima? Stiles. Who galvanized the troops to head down to Mexico the first time to rescue Derek? Stiles. Who traipsed into the woods on the word of his father and found where Derek was hiding? Stiles.

_Stiles_  missed him.

“Why do you have to leave town?” Stiles asks.

Derek sighs. Werewolf politics suck. “Posturing,” he says.

“Posturing?” Stiles repeats. “Like, what? Scott thinks you’re going to kill him for his alpha power? Wouldn’t you have already done that if you wanted power again?”

“I wouldn’t kill Scott,” Derek mutters. The only time he actually wanted to kill Scott was…never. He has truly never wanted to kill the kid. Yes, he used to threaten him with death, but how else do you make a teenager see reason? Ignore the alpha threat and die? No thanks. Kiss the daughter of the hunter family and die? Doubly no thanks. Even though Scott never listened, Derek would never have killed him.

“Is Scott going to kill you?”

“No.” At least, Derek doesn’t think so. For an answer to that question, he’d have to visit Scott, and that is not something he is ready to do quite yet.

“Then what’s this posturing bullshit?”

“Scott’s reasserting himself as the alpha. He has let me know that there is no place for me here. So, I have to leave town.”

“Bullshit,” Stiles says.

“What?” Derek demands, irritable. “What’s bullshit about that?”

“Scott doesn’t want you to leave. He’s been talking about asking you to join officially.”

“No,” Derek says. “I want no part in Scott’s pack. He is a good wolf, he’ll be a good man, but I can’t forgive him for what he’s done to me.”

Stiles purses his lips for a long moment before nodding. “That’s fair. So, do you still have to leave town?”

“That’s something I’d have to ask Scott. If he asks me to prostrate to him, then I’m leaving immediately.”

“Again, fair,” Stiles says. “How about we go ask him? And then, maybe you can come to my house for a decent meal. I’m sure you haven’t really been eating anything good out here.”

“Oh, I don’t know. Rabbits and squirrels go down nice,” Derek says. Stiles stares at him, and Derek shrugs. He’s not joking. He was living as a wolf. Wolves eat other animals.

“Whatever,” Stiles finally says. “That just proves you need something normal, like a hamburger.”

Derek sighs. “I’m naked, Stiles. I can’t exactly go into town right now.”

“Oh yes you can,” Stiles says, winking mischievously. “Who else gets to be naked and outside? Dogs. What can you turn into? A dog!”

“A wolf,” Derek corrects. Stiles is right though; if Derek shifts back into his full-wolf form, he could quite literally stroll into town and go to the sheriff’s house with Stiles. “Yeah, okay. Let’s go.”

“Really? I thought that’d take more convincing.”

Derek shrugs. “You said you’d give me a hamburger. Let’s go.”

He drops into a crouch, stretching out his limbs quickly and snapping teeth that sharpen from human blunt. He lets his eyes go blue, shaking his head until it snaps into the elongated jaw and snout of his wolf form. Stiles watches appreciatively as he shifts fully and stands up on four limbs.

“That will never get old,” Stiles says. “My Jeep is just ahead. We’ll ride into town and stop at the diner. Hope you like deep fried Twinkies for dessert.”

Derek lopes alongside Stiles, winding around his legs as they move. He couldn’t care less about the food really. He’s just happy that Stiles found him again.

He tips his head back and lets out a happy howl.

~ Fin ~


End file.
